NEWS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
Date 10th May 2013
NICIE, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, in its initial response to the ‘Together, Building a United Community’ notes with disappointment both the failure to recognise the role of integrated education in shaping a shared future and the failure to challenge the structural divisions in our system of education.
Implicit in the detail of the statement is an acceptance of segregated education. Implicit also is a recognition that our children and young people must have opportunities to meet and build relationships. Summer schools are proposed, yet the evidence from thirty years of such schemes is not convincing. The impact of schemes such as these is minimal and transitory.
There is a commitment to build 10 shared education campuses. No doubt this will increase contact between children and young people and between different staffs and that has got to be welcomed. But the question must be asked: why shared campuses instead of integrated campuses? Why take steps to avoid integration and to maintain segregation? Why ignore cost effective and progressive solutions in favour of maintaining duplication?
The public have time and again expressed their preference for Integrated Education, most recently in a Lucid Talk poll published in the Belfast Telegraph in March of this year. The opinion poll, carried out by Lucid Talk and commissioned by the Integrated Education Fund (IEF), reveals that 79% of parents interviewed said they would back a move to transform their child’s school to integrated, while 66% of all people questioned believe integrated schools should be the main model of our education system. More than two-thirds said an integrated school best prepares children for living and working in a diverse society.
Why is this support, expressed so clearly by the public, not recognised as we look to cementing peace and building a shared future? Why have the First and deputy First Minister politicians avoided addressing the continuing segregation of our schools?
62 integrated schools exist in which 22000 children share education on a daily basis, learning with, from and about each other in an ethos based on parity of esteem for the main traditions and acceptance and respect for all. It is our contention that this model of education should be the norm.
Noreen Campbell, Chief Executive of NICIE, said:
“It is disappointing that yet again the potential of Integrated Education to play a significant role in building good community relations has been ignored. The research shows that integrated education fosters life -long friendships and positive attitudes to a peaceful future. It offers a cost effective means of educating children together. It is based on a commitment to addressing difference and building acceptance and respect. It is a model of education to be embraced, not to be feared.
Moving forward, NICIE seeks an assurance that all parents seeking places in integrated schools should be guaranteed that choice and that the choice of integrated education is made available in all areas. Public demand for integrated education should not be ignored as new ways are found to continue to educate our children separately”
ENDS
For further information or to arrange an interview with a spokesperson please contact Noreen Campbell, Chief Executive Officer at (028) 9097 2910 or mob. 07878721327 or via email to ncampbell@nicie.org.uk
